


there's no place i'd rather be

by DearTheodosia (DapperMuffin)



Series: the experience of loving [4]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, Innuendo, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Slice of Life, slight spoilers but
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:48:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28200408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DapperMuffin/pseuds/DearTheodosia
Summary: John and his boyfriend Alex have been living together for five years. John's finally making some money as a painter, and life is good. He doesn't think it can get any better... can it?
Relationships: Alexander Hamilton/John Laurens
Series: the experience of loving [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1914802
Comments: 3
Kudos: 28





	there's no place i'd rather be

"Hey, babe," Alex says, leaning on the doorframe to watch his boyfriend.

"Hi," John says. "Sorry, have you been standing there long?"

"No, don't worry," Alex smiles. "I know how you get when you're painting."

"Yeah." John looks around at the mess he's made. "Damn. I really was out of it. Look at all the paint on the floor."

"Can I see your most recent work?" Alex asks.

John seems surprised. "Oh, sure." He steps aside to show Alex his easel. "I'm proud of this one."

"Wow." John's "most recent work" today is a realistic painting of a woman with flowing silver hair and glowing eyes and white freckles across her nose. The backdrop consists of a spiral galaxy. Alex has never seen anything like it.

"Do you like it?" John asks, picking at the paint drying on his fingers.

"I do, it's beautiful," Alex says. "You could sell it for a lot of money." He's brought up the idea before, but John always instantly shuts him down. This time, however, John looks contemplative.

"I could." He blinks, and the sunlight streaming into the room catches on his eyelashes just so. Alex finds himself slightly breathtaken at the sight. John has no right to be so beautiful that he takes Alex's breath away.

"You're a thief, you know," Alex says.

"What?" John says, bewildered. "No, I'm not. What did I steal?"

"My heart and my breath," Alex says, and John shakes his head.

"Alex!"

"It's true. You take my breath away." It's been five years. John still blushes when Alex compliments him, and it's endearing.

"Shut up."

"No, never," Alex smirks, kissing John. John has to tilt his head up to reach Alex’s lips, because at some point Alex had gotten taller than John, and Alex loves the advantage it gives him. (For once, he's not the short one.)

John puts the last few finishing touches on his painting, and once he's sure he's satisfied with it, he cleans up, spending several minutes in the bathroom scrubbing paint from underneath his fingernails.

John emerges from the bathroom. "Did I get it all?" John asks, doing a little spin for Alex.

Alex frowns. "I think you got some paint in your hair."

"Shit, really?" John sighs. "Not again."

"Sorry, love." Alex shrugs. "Maybe you should put your hair in a bun when you paint instead of a ponytail."

John mumbles something that sounds like "I don't want to" as he pouts, and Alex kisses him.

"Adorable."

"What is?" John asks, looking adorably innocent.

"You." Alex boops his nose without remorse, and John glares.

"Do. Not. Boop. My nose. How many times."

"Sorry," Alex says, not sorry at all.

* * *

Alex gets home from work. He puts his keys on the hook, and no sooner has he done that than John has hurtled towards him. He barely manages to steady himself as John attaches himself to Alex's torso in a tight hug.

"Hey," Alex says.

"Hey," John says into Alex's shirt.

"Did something happen?" Alex asks.

John pulls his face away from Alex's shirt so he can look Alex in the face. "You know that painting of the starwoman?" Alex nods. "Well, I put a listing online, and someone wants to buy it!"

"John, that's wonderful," Alex says, hugging his boyfriend.

"I think I'm gonna sell it," John says.

"Really? You were really proud of it," Alex says.

"I was," John says. "But it wouldn't be good for it to stay here and be just another painting. Someone wants it, Alex, it might hang in someone's house!"

"I see," Alex says. When John explains it like that, it makes sense. "I'm so happy for you."

* * *

"Good morning," Alex says one Saturday morning when John stumbles down into the kitchen with bleary eyes and messy hair.

"Morning." John, half-asleep, walks up to Alex and waits patiently for a kiss. As soon as Alex can stop minding the eggs, he kisses John, and John goes to sit down at the table.

Alex scoops the eggs onto a plate, turning off the stove. He carries two plates of eggs to the table, sliding one across the wooden surface to John.

"Is it a special occasion?" John asks, slightly more awake now. "You don't usually make breakfast."

Alex shrugs. "Nothing of note. I just... wanted to make breakfast today."

"Oh. Well, thanks." John picks up his fork, digging in to the eggs, and his eyes close. He makes a blissful noise. "How are you so good at making eggs? They're _eggs!"_

"I have my secrets," Alex grins, and John rolls his eyes.

"Well, thanks for making breakfast, anyway."

"Of course." Alex winks.

* * *

"We should just lay here the entire day," Alex says. He and John are lying on the bed, barely paying attention to whatever romcom is playing on the TV.

"I have to wash the dishes," John says, attempting to sit up but failing and falling back onto the pillow. "I _have_ to wash the dishes," he says again, more to himself than to Alex, but he still can't bring himself to sit up.

"So you agree with me," Alex says with some finality and some smugness.

"I guess." John gives up on trying to get up. "What is this show? It's so cliche and boring and _straight."_

"Yeah, why are we still watching this?" Alex says, grabbing the remote. He backs out of the show, and they sit on the home screen while they figure out what to watch.

"I heard Mean Girls is on somewhere...?" John says, and Alex shakes his head.

"Look, it's a good movie, but I've seen it like five times! I'm not watching it today!"

"What do you suggest, then?" John purses his lips.

"Uh..."

"That's what I thought. You always do this."

"What can I say? I'm picky!" Alex says. "Besides, what if the only thing I want to watch is you?"

"Holy shit," John says, and Alex kisses his nose. "How and why and... I'm gay."

"I know, babe, I don't think we'd still be dating, five years later, if you weren't."

"How do you do that?" John says. "You always know exactly what to say to fluster me."

"I'm just smooth." Alex shrugs. "I've had a lot of practice."

"I bet," John mumbles, and Alex shoots him a look. He shrugs. "What? I'm just saying. You're a flirt."

"Aw, are you jealous?" Alex says, and John rolls his eyes.

"Maybe," John says slyly, peeking at Alex with heavily-lidded eyes. "Should I be?"

Alex's ears turn pink. "Damn. Maybe we ought to flirt more often."

"Why do practically anything else when you can be gay?" John lays back on the bed.

"Amen," Alex says quietly.

In the end, they decide on rewatching cartoons they've seen a million times before because neither of them can come up with an option the other agrees with. (Neither of them mind very much.)

Afterward, John takes a shower. When he comes out of the bathroom later, still toweling his hair dry, Alex has somehow managed to decorate the whole house with garlands in several colors, and he's tied the ends together, so there's just one long rainbow strand hung around the whole inside of the house. (He kinda wants to kiss Alex for this.)

"Alex?" John calls. "What is this?"

"Come see," comes Alex's cheeky voice from another room. John follows the sound of his voice to the living room, where—

All of a sudden, John is stunned, hit with a wave of lightheadedness, and he has to brace himself against the wall. He drops the towel.

"Hey," Alex says, and John can't _believe_ he has the nerve to sound so casual, so nonchalant, when he's literally _on one knee—_

John laughs a little deliriously. "Is this for real?"

Alex nods, and John thinks they both might start crying. "John Laurens—"

"Wait, I need to sit down first, I think I'm going to pass out." John collapses on the couch. "Okay, now go."

"John Laurens," Alex says again. "You are the most wonderful and the most perfect person I've ever met"— _not true, Eliza exists, but shut up John's thoughts, he's proposing to you_ —"and I'm sorry it took me five years to finally do this. I need you to know that I've been holding onto the ring for years, and I bought it in September."

"But— you mean you decided to propose to me five years ago, two months after we started dating?" John's mouth hangs open.

"Well, at least it wasn't two weeks," Alex says, and John laughs.

"That's true, they really are the wlw stereotype, aren't they?"

"Now let me finish." Alex clears his throat, and John shuts up. "You are the most wonderful person I've ever met, and I can't imagine spending the rest of my life with anyone but you, or even just spending the rest of my life _without_ you. So, John Laurens, would you do me the honor of marrying me?"

"Yes." John nods wetly, and as Alex stands, he jumps to his feet to wrap his arms around Alex in a slightly damp hug. They hold each other for a minute, then pull apart.

"I got two engagement rings," Alex admits. "It'd just feel weird for you to have one and not me. Besides, the tradition of the man proposing and only the woman wearing an engagement ring in heterosexual relationships seems misogynistic and like it's allowing the man to get away with flirting with other women while engaged but not the woman, even though you really shouldn't flirt with other people when you're engaged anyway—"

John promptly stops him dead in his tracks with a short, sweet kiss. _"Dear."_

Alex blushes. "Right, yeah, sorry. The rings." Despite his flustered state, he still manages to kiss John's finger before sliding the ring on. (John is so, so glad Alex just proposed to him, because if he hadn't, John might just have had to do it himself.)

"Here, let me." John takes Alex's engagement ring, and, staring him in the face, replicates what Alex had just done moments ago. He takes great pleasure in the inconsistency of Alex's breathing.

"So. We're going to get married," Alex says.

"We're gonna get married!" John says. It hits him all at once. He kisses Alex with what might be a little too much passion, because Alex lets out a very _interesting_ noise.

"What was that?" John says slowly.

"Not sure," Alex says.

"You're blushing."

"Yeah, why aren't you?" Alex says.

"Let's just say... the blood is going somewhere else," John purrs, and Alex's eyes widen.

_"Oh."_

"Why don't we take this upstairs?" John says, eyes half-lidded. Alex proceeds to immediately pick John up bridal-style, and John yelps.

"This is the fastest way," Alex says, and John, well, he really can't complain, because the angle means he can kiss Alex's neck until they get upstairs.

They don’t really get anything else done that day.


End file.
